China doctors the news of Olympic torch relay

THE OLYMPIC TORCH IN S.F.

Kathleen E. McLaughlin, Chronicle Foreign Service

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Photo: Guang Niu

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BEIJING - APRIL 08: A Chinese labourer takes a break from working at an Olympic venue construction site on April 8, 2008 in Beijing, China. The labourers come from all over the country and most of them could earn around RMB 2000 yuan ($286) per month. (Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images)
Ran on: 04-09-2008
A Chinese laborer takes a break during construction of an Olympic venue in Beijing. Most workers earn about $286 a month.
Ran on: 04-09-2008
A Chinese laborer takes a break during construction of an Olympic venue in Beijing. Most workers earn about $286 a month.
Ran on: 04-09-2008 less

BEIJING - APRIL 08: A Chinese labourer takes a break from working at an Olympic venue construction site on April 8, 2008 in Beijing, China. The labourers come from all over the country and most of them could ... more

Photo: Guang Niu

China doctors the news of Olympic torch relay

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The tumultuous reception to China's Olympic torch relay around the world has touched a nationalistic nerve here, where heavily censored reports about Tibet and other topics at hand have left many wondering why China is under attack from foreign critics.

"It's just bad, bad, bad," retired army officer Wang Guanghai said of pro-Tibetan demonstrations that marred the torch relay in London and Paris. Wang, who chatted at a fruit stand in a downtown Beijing neighborhood, said he was certain the United States would be more welcoming when the torch arrived in San Francisco. Although protesters had hung pro-Tibetan freedom banners from the Golden Gate Bridge hours earlier, the news had not been published in China.

A middle-age woman surnamed Feng was less optimistic about the U.S. reception and less willing to give her full name. Feng, who did not want to give her first name, said the tension was noticeable among guards in the embassy district where she walks her dog. She said she expects China's international reception to continue to be rocky as the torch moves around the world.

"The (Chinese) government is worried; we're all worried," Feng said. "We've been preparing for these Olympics for eight years."

On the Internet, there is more indignation over disruptions of the torch relay. But gauging public opinion in China on sensitive issues like Tibet and human rights is close to impossible, and as elsewhere, the loudest voices attract the most attention.

Instead, political discourse is funneled via Internet controls toward nationalism, with popular news and chatter filled with patriotic sentiment. During the Chinese crackdown on Tibet last month, Web users reported that any comments critical of the government's handling of the turmoil or supportive of Tibetan rights were deleted shortly after being posted.

Regarding the torch run, page after page of comments on popular Web sites railed against China's foreign critics in general and against the international media in particular. CNN has become a favorite target, after government-run newspapers highlighted blogs critical of how the network cropped a photograph of demonstrations in Tibet. The Web site www.anti-CNN.com says it has received 400,000 hits since it opened a few weeks ago.

"In London, in Paris, many protesters are Westerners," said one commenter on www.china.com. "They've never been to China but are still against China because they don't want to see China develop."

Sebastian Veg, a researcher with Hong Kong's French Centre for Contemporary Research on China, noted that not all voices are alike. More than two dozen high-profile intellectuals and lawyers criticized the government's actions on Tibet in an open letter last month. Domestic newspapers like Southern Weekend, noted for its investigative reporting, have not toed the government line.

"There is clearly a group of very vocal nationalists who resent foreign criticism of China," Veg said. "These people both want to express themselves and are allowed to express themselves."

He compared the nationalistic outcry in China to similar movements in the United States and France in recent years.

"I would say China is probably not very different, and people can be led to say silly things when they see their politicians doing the same," Veg said.

The view of the torch run from within China has been censored heavily and intended to discredit protesters as a small group of anti-China malcontents. Initial protests by Reporters Sans Frontiers at the torch lighting ceremony in Athens went unreported by Chinese press for several days, and the disruptions in London were downplayed dramatically.

The English-language China Daily newspaper described London's upheaval in the streets as "disruptions by a few Tibetan separatists and their supporters." In the first reports from Paris by the state-run Xinhua news agency, the journalist cited "technical difficulties" as the reason the torch was extinguished and carried on a bus rather than by someone on foot.

A day later, a spokesman for the Beijing organizing committee of the Olympics told a hastily called news conference that though the relay had been disrupted, China intended to complete the longest torch run in the history of the Games.

Dissenting voices have been silenced even more than usual, so it's even tougher than in normal times to gauge popular opinion. But censorship in China begins early and political debate is limited, so to many the torch demonstrations seem like overblown personal attacks against Chinese people, not just criticism of their government.

"The downside of suppressing free information and substituting propaganda is quite clear, be it about toxic toys or repressed ethnic minorities - the eventual eruption is far worse than it might have been had it been dealt with openly," Richardson said.

"As long as China blocks the free flow of information, it is unreliable as a trading partner, as a strategic partner or as a 'responsible power.' "

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